Distributed eLearning Center Stanimir Stoyanov, University of Plovdiv 1 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Presentation Outline Rationale, Goals DeLC Infrastructure Education portal CA 3 Problems 2 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Rationale Master program in SE – 10 years experience: Started 2001 – 2009/2010: 50 students (around the optimum) – Only full-time: 5 years accreditation for the full-time program - but we can change the form without new accreditation – Problem: Logistics Restructuring of the program – From full-time to mixed form – Using DeLC 3 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Goals Implementation of an eLearning environment which can be used in the real education … but in the same time – Interactive – Personal – Proactive Framework for research activities – Context-aware and adaptable architecture 4 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

DeLC Infrastructure 5 eLearning Node Fixed access Mobile access InfoStation Network 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

eLearning Nodes Fixed access eLearning node (mainly practical) – Education portal – External eLearning tools Software engineering education – eLSEBuilder, RFAgent, SE eDictionary SCORM Editor (Reload) Creativity Assistant Mobile access eLearning node (mainly research) – Context-aware and adaptable middleware supporting the provision of mobile eLearning services – CA 3 (Context-Aware and Adaptable Architecture) 6 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Portal Structure EducationResearch DiLib Information Partners & News DeLC 7 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Portal Architecture 8 Presentation Layer Enterprise Service Bus LDAP Server User Services eServices LIFERAY Portlets DeLC SCORM Portlets DeLC Exam Portlets DeLC System Portlets Content Services Collaboration Services Legacy Content Store LIFERAY Datastore DELC Datastore Persistence Layer SCORM Runtime DESE / RELOAD 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Education portal: Home page 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September

eLearning Services Pre-education services – Information, education process organization & preparation, … Education services – eLectures SCORM 2004 editors and SCORM RT Engine – eTesting eTest Editors, eTest Engine and eTest Evaluator Post-education services – Education process documentation & recording, archive keeping, student & lecturer reports, … 10 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Education services: eLectures Content preparation – by external editors – SCORM compatible: Reload Editor (Bulgarian version supported by our group) – No standard format: Selbo 2 environment Portal services – Lecturers: Import of SCORM content Add comprehensive and well designed lecture annotation Set user (students) rights Configure detailed time schedule for lecture availability – Students: View lecture annotation Play SCORM course 11 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Education services: eTesting Lecturers: – Question DB preparation – Test pattern preparation Set test’s assessment scale Define test’s availability (time schedule and user rights) – Review and manually evaluate open questions – Review completed tests – Print examination protocol – Review Statistics about the evaluated tests eTesting engine: – Generation of personal tests – Automatically evaluate closed questions & Evaluation completion by using the assessment scale – Generation of examination protocols 12 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

eTesting: Student services Execute a test Receive immediately after completing the test the earned points for the closed questions Later review lecturer notes about the evaluation of the open questions Review the complete assessment for the whole test based on the automatic evaluation of the closed questions and manual evaluation of the open questions made by the teacher 13 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

eTesting: Question types One possible answer More than one possible answers Connect letter with digit Connect questions with answers Open question (answer in free text) 14 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Personalization and proactivity Different definitions in the literature We use intuitive definitions From experiments and our experience we try to draw precise definitions for our case and we introduce different levels 15 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

First level of personalization: User classification 16 Organizations Pages Organization Roles Roles Users User Groups Communities Pages Community Roles 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

First level of proactivity: reminding engine Reminding engine works with events The administrator can define system events which are supported for all users Each user can define private events – Exam, lecture, birth day, …. A event is described by different parameters – Message, time, communication type (mobile, ) RE generate and send messages according the indicated parameters 17 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Implementation Development environments & tools – Life Ray portal framework – SCORM engine – JEE components – RDBS Real testing: 2010/2011 – Question DB: Java, SE,AI – Master program 18 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Next work Typical extantions – Pre- and post-education services – New education services Second level of proactivity and personalization – Enhance the architecture by intelligent components - Personal assistants Lecturers Students – Ontologies 19 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

CA 3 : Two-component architecture Middleware – Context-awareness – locate and identify the changes in the environment – Adaptability – ensure a correct and effective service running eServices – Implementation of application functionality – For example - eLearning 20 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

CA 3 : Context Dey’s definition: – Context is any information that can be used to characterize the situation at an entity Entity can be person, place, object, … which are significant for interaction between user and application Different types of context: – Place – Identity – Activity – Time 21 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

CA 3 : Context-awareness Device mobility – Changing of user place User mobility – Changing of user device Communication type – Changing the type of mobile communication Bluetooth or WiFi (or WiMax) User identity (Personalization) – Domain dependent – eLearning Domain, student, pedagogical models 22 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

CA 3 : Adaptability In order to adapt the architecture to possible changes in the environment, detected by the context-aware component, we investigate two possibilities: – Usage of different kinds of agents Resident agents Operative agents – The agents can activate different behaviors 23 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Mobile Devices Info Station CA 3 : Three Axes Context- awareness Adaptability Request management Time management 24 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

CA 3 : Logical Structure 25 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010 System support Middleware Activation Layer Middleware Layer Service Interface Layer W(eb) Services H(ussein) Services S(CORM) Services

CA 3 : Service models 26 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010 Middleware Layer W ServiceH ServiceS Service SSEE

Problem 1: Which service model? 27 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010 W ServicesH ServicesS Services C&A-+++ Development+--- Research--+++ Standard++-+ Middleware compatibility ++++ Domain independence ++ --

Problem 2: Formalization Ambients – Description of CA 3 components and operating scenarios as ambients – CCA JTempura – Time-management components Agent-oriented 28 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Problem 3: Testing To test the behavior of the middleware and to experiment with new theoretical concepts we are developing a specialized simulation environment 4 levels: – Scenarios – Resident and operative agents – Multi-agents communication – Agents behaviors 29 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010

Thank you ! 30 10th Workshop “Software Engineering Education and Reverse Engineering”, Ivanjica, Serbia, 5-12 September 2010